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Wild Kingdom' MONDAY MEMO from DAN KNIGHT, Bozell & Jacobs, Omaha TV's vanishing sponsor breed survives well in `Wild Kingdom' The competitive jungle of television ily show that is both entertaining and copy are keyed to the map so that today, with all of its economic snares educational. We've received nothing students can quickly see just where in and rigors, still cannot crush out that but favorable response from the view- the world each program originates. hardy species, the program sponsor. ing public and our staff." Wildlife The comic books, also printed in For example, the nation's largest officials like it too, he notes, because color and in the style of "Mark Trail," health and accident insurance company the show does much to help preserve are built around adventures of the pro- and a team of dedicated zoologists and our natural resources. gram's stars and are distributed to photographers have consistently been Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom schools as well. The comic books can be winning good will and good prospects consistently has been one of the top - imprinted by the local NBC -TV affiliate on NBC -TV every Sunday at 5 p.m. rated shows on weekend daytime tele- station or by the local Mutual of Omaha through their program, Mutual of vision. Nielsen figures for the 1965 -66 representative. Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Last week season credit the program with an There are several other promotion the show also won the Emmy award average audience of some 16 million pieces prepared for the program, in- as "the outstanding program achieve- armchair explorers each week. The cluding posters, schedules, synopses, ment in daytime programing." Jan. 30 show this year was viewed by local advertising kits and television Wild Kingdom has just been renewed over 24 million men, women and chil- trailers. The advertising kits and TV for a fifth consecutive year on NBC -TV. dren. Obviously these high ratings and trailers are sent to each of the more The first program in the award -winning daytime television's lower costs give than 500 local Mutual of Omaha offices. series for the new 1966 -67 season will the sponsor a very effective cost -per- The home office makes co -op funds premiere Oct. 16. This true -life animal - thousand performance. available for those agents who want to adventure show is produced by Don At present Wild Kingdom is carried buy time and space to promote the Meier Productions, Chicago. and is by 197 NBC -TV affiliates throughout series in their markets. filmed on location. the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii. Spot Plum Too An innovation Format Evolution It has been a Of this total 177 deliver the show and with the 1965 -66 season was the 10- long and happy relationship which be- its commercials in color. second and 20- second television com- gan back in 1954. At that time Mutual Much of the success of the program mercials designed to fit right after the of Omaha first became associated with can be traced to the high degree of network program. They were person- Mr. Meier and the program star, Mar- cooperation among all involved, NBC - alized for each general agent by the lin Perkins, when the company bought TV, Don Meier Productions, Mutual of stars of the show. a 13 -week schedule on Zoo Parade on Omaha and its agency, Bozell & Jacobs. And how can any sponsor fail to NBC -TV. It was fruitful for everyone Mr. Meier helps plan and also produces reap benefits from a show like Wild concerned so Mutual bought a larger and directs the integrated cast com- Kingdom that is one of those programs schedule on Zoo Parade the next season. mercial used in each show. He also which is popular not only with viewers Mutual of Omaha at that time how- assists Bozell & Jacobs in planning the of all ages but also the television critics. ever already had established a bright collateral material produced to mer- The show stands among those fre- broadcast record. It was one of the chandise and promote the series. quently cited for commercial television's first insurance firms to pioneer in ad- Educational Impact This past sea- contributions to education. vertising on network television, with son the promotion material included There is a lot of good customer serv- the Bob Considine show on NBC -TV. 100,000 colorful world maps and pro- vice and salesmanship reflected too in For the past 15 years Mr. Considine as gram guides for school classroom use the awards from many sources earned by spokesman for Mutual of Omaha con- and a million "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Such high praise has in- tinues to do an outstanding job on Wild Kingdom" comic books. The cluded citations from the National Wild- ABC Radio every day. large maps are illustrated with original life Federation, the National Association When Zoo Parade ended its long paintings of the animals featured in for Better Radio and Television and the network run, Mutual of Omaha main- each of the programs. The pictures and TV industry's Emmy award. tained its network exposure through participations on several other pro- grams. Then, in 1962, Mr. Meier and Marlin Perkins devised a new travel - adventure format. V. J. Skutt, Mutual's Dan Knight is account executive for board chairman, liked the idea of leav- Mutual of Omaha at Bozell & Jacobs, ing the more confining zoo format. Omaha. He joined agency in April 1965. Mr. Skutt also was impressed with Graduated from Northwestern University the possibilities of full sponsorship of in 1951, Mr. Knight for 10 years was with the new program and of having the Chicago office of Young & Rubicam as program stars, Mr. Perkins and Jim radio -TV account executive and assistant Fowler, deliver the company's com- to the broadcast manager. Then he joined mercial messages. So Mutual of McCann -Erickson there as assistant vice Omaha's Wild Kingdom was born and president in broadcast programing. He the advertising integrated directly into also was broadcast services director at the program. MacManus, John & Adams, Chicago. The Total Sell "The program has been perfect for us," Mr. Skutt ob- serves, "because it is an excellent fam- 28 BROADCASTING, May 30, 1966 .
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